Midsummer's Day Festival

Lindsborg celebrated Midsummer's yesterday, and a great time was had by all. As previously reported, the format changed quite a bit for this year; the result was a pleasing mix of old and new!

The new layout in the park, the booths representing various aspects of traditional Swedish village life, and of course the wonderful Swedish dancing, all made for one of the best Midsummer's celebrations I've attended.

On the photography front, this year turned out much better than last year. Though I took around 1,000 photos last year, I was disappointed with most of them, and only published a handful.

This year's results speak for themselves; the 15 shown below were chosen from the set of 80 I posted on Flickr, and those were the best of the 178 that made the first cut, chosen from 784 total images.

Using Adobe Lightroom, it's taken me about 5-7 hours to sort, process (crop, straighten, color balance), convert to jpeg and publish to Flickr and my web sites. Well worth it, I might add. I love trying to capture a fun event like Midsummer's and then sharing it with the world.

Susan and Becky did a tremendous job in leading the team this year, as we pulled off one of the best Midsummer's in recent memory!
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Traditional manly dance.
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Swedish dancers.
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Swedes love their coffee!
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More Swedish dancers.
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I just love the dance with the flower covered hoops!
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More of the hoop dance.
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Wheee!!
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The Swedish dancers continue to be the highlight of Midsummer's for me.
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The dancers head to Sweden soon after Midsummer's; think they look excited?
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A master at work.
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Main street even had a Maypole this year.
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Midsummer's isn't complete without the traditional Maypole raising ceremony.
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Leading the charge. The live musical accompaniment provided by these local musicians adds greatly to the days' proceedings.
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The frog dance, a humorous dance made more fun by the audience's participation. Even the bishop is in the mood.

It's hard to believe we've come this far since our first Midsummer's committee meeting in January, but Lindsborg will be celebrating Midsummer's this weekend, Saturday June 21st.

You can visit our Midsummer's Day web site for more information, and a PDF of the full-color, 8 page program is available:

Midsummer's Day Program

I've been involved with 4 Midsummer's celebrations and this year promises to be one of the best ever! Quoting from a recent Midsummer's press release:

Festival organizers have dramatically changed the festival this year with new events and activities intended to embrace the community's Swedish heritage and to involve guests and participants more intimately in the celebration.

Visitors can enjoy the magic of summer by stepping into a quaint Swedish village, which features artisans' shops, settlers' homes, artists and craftsmen's studios, a storyteller's den, and a homemaker's kitchen. They can absorb as well as observe. For example, the Svenska Vänskaps Gruppen (Swedish Friendship Group) will welcome casual visitors, explaining traditions, customs, and folklore handed down over generations - even helping them learn Swedish phrases.

Finally, to further get you in the mood for Midsummer's this weekend, here's a few photos from Midsummer's past:

Press the "reload/refresh" button in your browser to see a different set of photos. You can also view more photos of Midsummers in Lindsborg from years gone by.

Another Midsummer's Festival has come and gone, and from all reports this year's event was one of the best in recent memory! Hurrah for the Lindsborg Midsummer's Day Committee; if I do say so myself, we did a great job this year.

From the excellent stylings of the Swedish rock band Tiny Toads through the always excellent performances by the youth and adult Lindsborg Swedish dancers, the weekend was almost perfect. Sunny skies, happy crowds, great selections in the crafts vending area and a wide selection of children's activities contributed to a wonderful celebration that was capped off with the raising of the Maypole and more dancing! Even the food was more varied than in years past, but fans of Lindsborg's Viking on a Stick were still able to satisfy their cravings.

I took a few photos, but it may be a while before I get a chance to review and publish them. In the interests of more quickly sharing our wonderful weekend I'm going to link to fellow area artist Julie-Ann, who has posted a great Flickr set of Midsummer's 2007 photos; enjoy!

Here's one of the pictures I took:

I've taken quite a large number of photographs during recent Midsummer's Day Festivals in Lindsborg. I share the photos on my personal blog, All the Pages Are My Days, and on my Blog About Lindsborg, Little Sweden USA, as well as at Flickr.

Below is an index of all the photoblog entries from Little Sweden, USA that have pictures from Midsummer's Day. Click on any of the post titles to be taken to the entry where the photos are displayed. Also, here's a link to the Midsummer's Day photos on Flickr.

Midsummer's 2006: Misc Images

We'll wrap up the photo coverage of this year's Midsummer's Day Festival in Lindsborg, Kansas with a few photos that didn't fit in any of the other categories. This Swedish flag helped set the tone for the day.

Posted in Little Sweden USA on July 2, 2006 01:51 PM

Midsummer's 2006: Lindsborg Folkdanslag

The Lindsborg Folkdanslag provide their unique brand of Swedish Folk Dancing as they entertain the crowds at Lindsborg's 2006 Midsummer's Festival on June 17th.

Posted in Little Sweden USA on July 1, 2006 01:18 PM

Midsummer's 2006: Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancers

It's always a treat to watch the Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancers perform, and this year's Midsummer's proved to be no exception! They infuse their dancing with a spirit and vigor that is refreshing and joyful to watch.

Posted in Little Sweden USA on June 30, 2006 10:16 PM

Midsummer's 2006: Leikarring Dancers

At the 2006 Midsummer's Festival in Lindsborg we were fortunate to have not one, but two visiting dance groups. I've already posted images of the Mora Folkdanslag, from Mora Sweden, and here's a set of images of the Leikarring, a...

Posted in Little Sweden USA on June 29, 2006 11:06 AM

Midsummer's Photo Update: Mora Folkdanslag

I'm making great progress and have almost finished processing the 930 photos I took at last weekend's Midsummer's celebration. I've cut the number of keepers down to a little under 300. That's still high, but when one considers there were...

Posted in Little Sweden USA on June 29, 2006 11:02 AM

Midsummer's Swedish Fashion Review

One of the highlights of the weekend's Midsummer's celebration was the Swedish Fashion Review. A nice variety of costumes were modeled, including both modern costumes as well as vintage designs that included pieces of costumes brought over from Sweden by...

Posted in Little Sweden USA on June 24, 2006 01:30 AM

Midsummer's Day 2006

One week ago Lindsborg celebrated the annual Swedish holiday known as Midsummer's. For the second year in a row, I provided publicity for the event, and once again it was a wonderful, challenging and rewarding experience. You can read more...

Posted in Little Sweden USA on June 24, 2006 01:22 AM

Midsummer's Day: Photos and Commentary

I had the very special pleasure to attend my first Midsummer's Day festival in Lindsborg yesterday. It was a beautiful day, sunny but not too hot and the north(Swensson) park in Lindsborg was filled with people enjoying the day. ...

Posted in Little Sweden USA on June 19, 2005 04:57 PM

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